Kent State Prof Investigated For ISIS Ties Charged With Lying To FBI

FILE - This file image posted on a militant website on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2014, which is consistent with AP reporting, shows a convoy of vehicles and fighters from the al-Qaida-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, now called the Islamic State group, in Iraq's Anbar Province. “We can’t stop this thing, but we can limit it,” a former Islamic State group commander told the Associated Press of the Sunni militant group’s ambition to create a self-styled caliphate. “Daesh has nothing to lose,” he added, using the group’s Arabic acronym. ”They like it when (they are) hot in the news.” The former commander was interviewed at an Iraqi prison where he is now held and works as an informant.(AP Photo/militant website, File)

More parents of college-bound children might be asking themselves once again if college is worth it after a Kent State University professor, who was being investigated for ties to ISIS, has been charged with lying to the FBI.

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According to US Attorney spokesman Mike Tobin, 58-year-old Dr. Julio Pino is charged with one count of making false statements to law enforcement. These charges apparently stem from the FBI’s 2016 investigation into Pino’s ties to ISIS.

Parents worry about a host of things when sending their children off to college. Thanks to Pino, parents not only have to worry about binge drinking, but they have had to worry about their children being radicalized into terror by professors as well.

This professor has a history of radical statements that have alarmed people in the area.

Julio Pino first grabbed national headlines in 2011 when he shouted “Death to Israel!” during an Israeli diplomat’s lecture at the University. He also wrote an article for the Kent State newspaper in 2002 praising teen Palestinian suicide bomber Ayat al-Akhras. In “Singing Out Prayer for a Youth Martyr,” the tenured professor said the suicide bomber “died a martyr’s death.”

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In 2014, the Latin American History professor posted an open letter to “academic friends of Israel” blaming them for the deaths of 1,400 Palestinian children.

According to Cleveland.com his letter stated:

The duty of the revolutionary is to make the revolution,’ wrote Fidel Castro.You have done neither. You have chosen to openly work for and brag about academic collaboration with a regime that is the spiritual heir to Nazism.”

Your names are scrawled on every bullet fired, bomb dropped, body buried and burnt forehead in Gaza.”

Julio Pino is a thorn in the Ohio university’s side. While there for a tour earlier this year, I asked the Admissions Office about the History professor and was told he is always accompanied by security while on campus. Given that he is tenured, I was informed that he could not be fired for his anti-Semitic comments and that Pino’s classes were monitored. Perhaps Kent State’s relationship with Pino has changed recently a link to his profile on the school’s website is giving a 404 error.

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These charges highlight a serious issue with tenure on college campuses. At what point will tenure no longer protect a professor? Randa Jarrar of Fresno State also exposed a tenure’s issues last week when she tweeted horrific comments after Barbara Bush’s death and then followed it up with by directing people to call a mental health crisis line, flooding their phones with irate callers.

Tenured professors like Jarrar and Pino sometimes feel they have a free pass to act like animals. It’s time for that to end. In the real world, actions have consequences. They should on college campuses as well.

 

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